What's everyone's opinions on the top 3 best and bottom 3 worst of the last 10 expansions (Rain of Fear thru Terror of Luclin) and why? Very curious on your opinions!
I agree, and I was wondering if there was some reason behind the expansion you chose or if it was just random.
10 seemed like a nice round number and I suppose ROF onward could all be considered "modern" EQ even though it stretches back about 10 years. I could see how arguments could be made to draw that line at different xpacs, but as I said, 10 seemed good. If people pick 3 good, and 3 bad, then that would default another 4 to an area of mediocrity.
off topic (and not really that important): I think of "modern" EQ as HoT forward, so that's 12 expacs. But I'll stick to your question, and keep it to the last 10: RoF CotF TDS TBM EoK RoS TBL ToV CoV ToL Since I'm perma-way-behind-the-curve, I have no opinion on the last 5, since I have done little other than step foot in them (and not even that for CoV). For the first 5, I think EoK and TDS are my favorites. Nice zones, good gearing, etc. (though, now that I mention gear, hat-tip to RoS for Conflagrant!) TBM is my least favorite. Too many quests which are group quests (even partisan and merc quests). I have sporadic and usually short play sessions, and a timed quest is not my favorite. I don't mind that the missions are timed group quests, but really, merc and partisan, too? And the abandoned gear model with type 9 augs. Guess we know why they abandoned it, right?
(Disclaimer: All My Opinion!) Third Best) COTF Even though this xpac gets a bad rap, I feel it delievered quite a good bit of content with the few zones it gave us. It had 2 versions of Savior for each zone which resulted in more to do. The HA system was neat and gave lots to do for raiders and casuals even if people chose to run gribbles over and over. The theme was pretty cool too. Second best) EOKThis xpac had a little bit for everyone. The tuning was reasonable. The Artisan's Prize gave us lots to do outside of raiding. Raids were pretty fun although it could be argued that they were too easy. Progression in the 2nd half of the xpac was mostly group tasks so that was nice. THE best) ROF This one gave us A LOT. 4 tiers of content and gear. Items that are STILL worth going back and getting (Grelleths Seal, Rod of Dark Rites, Bifold Focus). The theme was super cool. The raids were fun and dynamic, and difficulty was well spread out. It's also the xpac that started collections. ____________ Third Worst) TDSThere are zones that are STILL locked behind progression to this day! There's zero need to revisit these raids or do vanquisher as there is arguably nothing of real value here. Caverns of Endless Song was hateful. While the xpac felt small, consolidating all raids to 1 zone made it feel even smaller. Second Worst) TBL Did EVERYTHING have to be called a muhbis? This confused the crap out of people that already had difficulty grasping concepts, which made "herding the cats" even more difficult for non-top-ten guilds' raid leadership. Raid lag really peaked here I think (which isn't necessarily a reflection of the content, but made the content less pleasant in-era). Meratas....well that's a double edged sword. It's cool to have a raid that not everybody can beat I guess. But it can be argued that it was just a bit too much. This xpac broke guilds. Also....balancing boss HP on nearly every event was overkill. It's really not THAT fun of a mechanic.. THE Worst) TBM We got what, 1 zone that wasn't recycled? They broke HAs during this and I'm pretty sure they're still broke. Many aspects of this xpac were broken. The big item for vanquisher decayed after the next level increase. Content was artificially inflated by making you repeat each task 6 times (wow yaaay soooo fun). Yeah this one kinda just sucked all around. I guess to give SOME credit, at least some of the raids were kinda fun? Lady of Light and Damsel of Decay were pretty enjoyable raids.
Yes indeed. And I liked the fact that you could upgrade the conflagrant to raid gear with the diamonds.
Worst Cov/tov (tried too hard to make everyone snowblind) Tbm (click the mirror, soo innovative, let’s copy that other game and make sure we do it worse and overuse it!) Best: no opinion
Yeah. You also needed EOTD from the previous xpac to be able to handle to kar zok AOEs. It was basically EOK 2.0
TBM is the best. It had a cool aesthetic, revisited some great zones, had quest lines that weren't annoying, had interesting raids and we got to do Fear again which is great. The scaling gear was a nice idea even if it didn't last long. Plus it had some nicer/unique items like Eye of Life/Decay and that melee mask everyone wanted. It added type 5s, which was a good idea, and back then it wasn't too much effort to get a full set. The last three expansions I've only bought 2 or 3 type 5s from missions because it's just too much work. Oh and Wizards got our Vortex line. We'd be extra useless without that. RoS #2. since it had some of the best raids and group zones that were actually fun. Especially Howling Stones and VP. Plus Skyfire made people deal with some basic mechanics which is something this game sorely needs more of outside of raids. It also had good group missions with a couple achievements that actually took a little bit of effort. I actually didn't mind farming missions in RoS. Plus it also had some nice unique items from VP and I still use one of them today. TBL #3. since it did have the Mearatas raid. The only semi-difficult raid in a long time. Even though I'm not a fan of putting in too much effort I did like the evolving items and having missions like Fight Fire as an option to earn coins and buy type 5s. I probably played this expansion outside of raids more than any other in a long long time. Plus in general some of the group missions and zones were semi-challenging and interesting. At least some of the achievements were. Plus it was nice doing plane of fire again and if you combine it with GMM it had a nice amount content. ToL #8. I don't know if it's the lag that takes the fun away or what but besides Close the Gate I don't really enjoy the raids. Although, it is nice nice having a quick burn with Shei so I can't complain about that one too much. Class balance issues are worse than in any other expansion out of the last 10. There's the one nice aug from doing raid achievements but it's nothing too special or interesting and there's no other evolving items or anything unique. I did like seeing sacrified cat people so I do like the overall theme of the expansion but it did seem like the group content took a step backwards toward too easy and bland. We finished the expansions really fast in my launch group and the achievements were all easy. That said, I still can't solo or 2 box anything for coins and the missions are boring so I don't see me ever farming coins for type 5s. The two I have is plenty. RoF #9. The resists on raids are horrible. Even at level 120 I hate doing those raids because of it. It's really really annoying. The expansion also had too much content in my opinion. They could have cut 1/2 the zones and it would still be enough. I'm only going to use one or two zones for xp after doing all the quests so the rest become useless. And most the quests it had were boring and tedious in addition to simply having too many to do. Plus don't forget the annoying portal activiation nonsense. The only good thing was it had a few unique items that are still useful today and having a new version of ToV was kinda cool. Plus the couple dragon raids were fun even if all the others were bad. Overall, it just loses too many points for making me useless on one too many raids. TDS #10. The locked zones were annoying. I didn't really enjoy any of the raids. Having to hail a million times for quests was no fun. They had one cool looking zone with Thuliasaur but no dinosaur raids!? Caves with all the underwater was nice but the quests were annoying. I remember I actually had to forage or do something stupid for that parrot aug? Inexcusable. I did kinda like Arx Mentis as far a group content goes but that was really it. Oh and I guess it gets some points for the antidote clickie but overall it just wasn't very good. Even the group content was a bit too easy. I two boxed everything with my enchanter in all group gear. I like having one missions I can handle without needing a real group but not everything being super easy.
Having just closed the chapter on RoF and waiting for CoTF to unlock... RoF really wasn't bad. There were maybe two or three "unfun" portions... And EoF3 raid/mission really needs an adjustment. No raid/mission victory should be at the will of the RNG... 5, 10, 15+ minutes waiting for that AoE to fire.. just to have it land right when Xaric decides to float away invuln.... No. Not fun. I think RoF now/TLP is a different experience than RoF on release. Because RoF was rolled out with T1/T2, then T3 rolled out followed by T4.. It wasn't as much "wasted" content. Think of it more like RoFa and RoFb. There was plenty to do with RoF T1/T2 and a decent variety of zones.(Undead, outdoor, dungeon, etc..) That lasted most of a normal expansion's life. T3 rolled out 2 zones with great themes, and finally T4 rolled out for a few final weeks... three of the worst laid-out zones with minimal gains, horrible navigation, undead/living mixed in together, a few augs worth getting and a kinda "blah" end to the story. Most time was spent in T2 stocking up on (finally) a new power source. Otherwise, I'm kind of a mix of OP and Kizant. TDS definitely hits at or near the bottom due to the locked zones, One-dimension raids (seriously.. where were the Dinos?), grotto... Fin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Slight rant: Didn't get into the last 3 expansions.. but don't really like the trend of "reskinned" old zones. (I know it was a lot more work than a graphical facelift.) I dare include EoK/RoS in there too. It doesn't take that much to add something new. The concept for VoA was basically stolen from a JRPG, EoK/RoS/ToV/SoV/ToL.... at least parts of RoF were original (though T1/T2 and Shadows were a rehash) SoD was mostly a rehash, but at least it had a good story as to why and good progression WTB more new things and less reuse of existing lore/zones. And end the Mayong story for the love of all that is holy.
Only seven expansions here because three are locked. My point of view is that of boxed FTP/Silver accounts which cannot make much or any use of new expansions. Which does mean that RoS and TBL will be excluded too. Five expansions left. Impossible to rate three best and worst so just a rating list with the best rated expansion on the top and some comments: 1. The Darkened Sea kindly considers you Positive: Nicely composed and consistent theme with well designed zones and intense lore. Good sequel to The Burried Sea. Neutral: Dinos, science fiction - An interesting but controversial spin . Lore is funny but also a bit pathetic sometimes. "Hail, Thubr Alebringer !"; Thubr: "Smash !" *copper coins raining down on the street* Negative: Theme is not integrated well into Norrath and like many other expansions a separate world. To many progression locked zones. Zones can create graphical hardware lag. Mob placement is often to dense. Graphics::: oooooooooo Music::::::: oooooooooo Lore:::::::::: oooooooooo Gameplay: oooooooooo 2. Empires of Kunark looks your way apprehensively Positive: Frontier Mountains - Basically the only nice zone with good experience and balanced risk where the whole expansion is centered about . Scorched Woods is also an option but a wasteland. Good graphics. Nostalgia factor. Consistent theme. Neutral: Temple of Droga using 16 year old graphics. Good for nostaliga but very poor graphics even in the year 2000. Controversial revamped zones. Negative: Lceanium - Mobs are way to hard for an initial arriving and progression zone. Miserly and messed up zone design. Where is Karnor's Castle and the other parts of the Dreadlands ? Drachnid caves are to dangerous and not original in this mountain area. Most of the few zones are a waste because to hard or not rewarding. Dunno what the lore is about because it is locked in progression. So far it is uninteresting. Graphics::: oooooooooo Music::::::: oooooooooo Lore:::::::::: oooooooooo Gameplay: oooooooooo 3. Rain of Fear glowers at you dubiously Positive: Stable gameplay and quests. Partially good graphics. Nostalgia factor. Neutral: The lore. Negative: Most loot is prestige. No consistent theme, just shattered pieces that are extentions or revamped zones from/to several previous "vanilla" expansions. Lore is hidden in progression and is puzzling. Grelleth's Palace - A zone theme about swine dung; fascinating ! Overhelming music compositions that are not enjoyable for gameplay. Graphics::: oooooooooo Music::::::: oooooooooo Lore:::::::::: oooooooooo Gameplay: oooooooooo 4. Call of the Forsaken glares at you threateningly Positive: Generally good lore and music with a few exceptions. Neriak Fourth Gate is a nice eye candy zone. Partially does offer a nostalgia factor. Neutral: Most content is focused on heroic adventure missions. Negative: Mostly very challenging content. Boring and very repetitive heroic adventures. Very poor zone design in the Dead Hills and Argin Hiz with wastelands and repetitive building block patterns. Poor consistency because the expansion is shattered way to much into several themes where each base zone does represent a theme. Graphics::: oooooooooo Music::::::: oooooooooo Lore:::::::::: oooooooooo Gameplay: oooooooooo 5. The Broken Mirror scowls at you, ready to attack Positive: The initial zone Plane of Health has a nice atmosphere and music. Neutral: Quiet a few less or more hidden instanced missions. Negative: This expansion is an audacity. All but Plane of Health are poorly revamped or mexican comic style zones with little consistency that do appear totally distraught. Smallest expansion ever. What an act of desperation ! Lore.. is there any noteable ? Pretty tough content. Graphics::: oooooooooo Music::::::: oooooooooo Lore:::::::::: oooooooooo Gameplay: oooooooooo Ring of Scale The Burning Lands Torment of Velious Claws of Veeshan Terror of Luclin
Feedback based upon TLP experience of these expansions. Top 3 1. EoK 2. RoF 3. CoTF Worst 3 1. TBM 2. ToV 3. CoV RoF: Very enjoyable expansion overall, did not enjoy that it re-used Velious zones. CotF: Very atmospheric music that really enhanced the zones, interesting raids & a welcome return to a LDoN-esque approch, having a very solid group-focused gearing system. TDS: Not a big fan of this expansion's raids there could have been so much more variety involved but everything was pretty much locked to Arx Mentis. The group progression was really nice. TBM: So I never saw this on live only on TLP where it was a butchered mess of overpowered HA content thanks to some very bad developer choices that has still not been properly de-scaled to this day. It having only 1 new zone and a bunch of rehashed ones made it feel limited & stale very quickly, the only real upside was the Type 5 augs & how they were not overly onerous to obtain like they became in later expansions. EoK: Really good expansion that I enjoyed very much, added some much needed character development which had been missing before & sadly since. RoS: Horrible start for this expansion with some purposefully anti-merc choices & mob behaviours, it was at this expanions EQ seemed to say to players "you need to be the max level before you play this expansion" right after nerfing experience in old expansions so you were punished for doing so in prior content. Most of the raids were solid but Lavastorm was just a horrible zone full stop with ideas that were badly concepted & made it a zone to avoid at all costs if you possibly could. TBL: Didn't like the zone-locking system at all, my preference is to only lock the end zone of an expansion, especially when EQ expansions have shrunken to the 1/4th of an oldskool expansion size.My biggest gripe with both RoS & even more so with TBL is that Mercs in this era are absolute crap, a waste of plat even I ended up doing a better job tanking content as a zerker than the now weak as a newborn relative to the content mercs were in these expansions. ToV: Took the EXP model further in the wrong direction IMO.Did not enjoy the over-use of the new shader & so much blinding white ice & snow probably gave me retina burn. Some horrible bugs & content broken even after having been around for a year made this an even more frustrating expansion for me, to the point I quit EQ entirely for several months. CoV: Pretty Meh, more snow-blindness, another too dang small expansion, raids felt unimaginative. I lost the desire to continue playing EQ live thanks to this expansion, though there was likely some residual frustration from ToV. ToL: No opinion, haven't played it beyond some beta-testing of raids.
I didn't play EQ when RoF was current, so for these purposes I'm ignoring it. It obviously has a ton of content and some interesting items worth going back for, but I have to say I agree with Kizant (as I do for a lot of this), the raids seemed pretty bad apart from the Shard's Landing raid. With that said: Best: 1. The Burning Lands: I had more to do in the group game in this expansion than any other I've played because of the evolving items. I liked the theme and new zones, and even excluding evolving items it had more content than most modern expansions. I actually don't like most of the raids, but Mearatas is by far the highlight of my time raiding in EQ. I also liked the GMM group zone and raids, even though it's technically not a part of the expansion.2. Ring of Scale: This has my favorite overall set of raids from any expansion. It really benefited (IMO) from the ~2 billion 32-bit HP cap at the time, which made a better mix of event lengths than most modern expansions have. I also really enjoyed Howling Stones and Sathir's Tomb, and Veeshan's Peak is the only good end zone from quite a few expansions. I did not find the overland zones very fun.3. Empires of Kunark: EoK had the best class development of any modern expansion, primarily through the large number of AAs it added. It's the last time the gameplay of classes really moved, and that made it really interesting to play during. I think EoK had some pretty decent zones, with overland zones that were actually reasonably accessible. Chardok had some fun raids, but overall it did not have my favorite raids.Worst: 7. Terror of Luclin: This expansion is the least I've played EQ since I started playing. The raids aren't that great and the group quests are pretty bland/fast/easy. Close the Gate is a good raid, but none of it was hard enough to be interesting, and the events aren't varied enough to be fun to farm. I think ToL has some of the better zones of EQ expansions I've played, but I have no reason to experience them because the game has minimal compelling character progression. Class development was non-existant and there are no evolving items or anything else interesting to achieve.8. The Darkened Sea: The group content in TDS was actually pretty good; I ran a bunch of alts through it because it was reasonably accessible and not too annoying. I think this has some of the best looking zones of any EQ expansion, especially Thuliasaur. What really let it down for me was (as with ToL) a lack of class development and other interesting items/rewards to incentivize actually playing there, along with the smallest and least enjoyable set of raids of any expansion I've played.9. The Broken Mirror: To be fair to TBM, I went back years later and actually thought the content was pretty good. When it came out, though, it was a buggy mess, and I did not enjoy the theme at all. It's the only expansion where I didn't complete (or try to complete) the group content in era, and I solely logged in to raid and logged out on my main. Also the final raids were mind numbingly easy. It did have a lot of raid content for lower tier guilds (17 raids, all of which were pretty accessible), which gave me a reason to play alts.Without going through them in detail, the remaining three (ToV, CoV, and CotF) were all pretty "eh" to me. CoV had the same issues as ToL except that it had really good raids other than Arbiter. ToV had mediocre raids and zones, except that ToFS was pretty fun and it had an evolving item. CotF had the whole HA thing going on, which I thought was fine, but its raids were pretty unenjoyable.
Roughly: RoF - Was one of the largest expansions in "recent" history. The story line was interesting, there were new zones, new class weapons, raids were hard but doable for my guild. I liked how they did the various zones off the central starting area. Made it easy to get around. We still go back and do raids for twin cast clicky. TBL - Overall I liked the expansion. New lore. Illusion clicky and carpet. I liked how we picked up a clicky port to get us to various spots with in the expansion. The bad of course was forcing everyone to funnel through the first zone, with the AE kickbacks and falling off the islands, etc. The naming convention was horrible, making it hard to follow the directions. Having everything revolve around PoFire was annoying as well. TBM - I disliked the expansion when it came out, but it grew on me as I went through it. I think the developers had just watched a couple Tim Burton films and took inspiration from them. The expansion had its fair share of negative things as well. The raids all had DPS checks that made them unbeatable for my guild, except for PoHate and some of poFear. The expansion was very small with lots of zone reuse. -------------------------------------- TDS - This was one of the hardest expansions. Lots of see invis made it feel like I was rez'ing my way through the progression. The story line was good, but having to hail the mobs 10-20x with in the task was crazy. The best part of the expansion was dino island. Loved that zone. ToV/CoV/ToL - I'm putting all of these last. This is where the XP for level gains seriously gets out of hand. The expansions are again small with lots of 'remastered' zones. ToV/CoV suffered from 'snow blindness'. ToL is the absolute worst as far as raiding. No one in my guild enjoys the 'single failed emote' = wipe mechanics. That is just NOT fun.
